


secret agent graham

by summerwoodsmoke



Category: Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019)
Genre: ACME Agent Graham, Alternate Universe, Gen, Post-Season/Series 03, The Felt Presence of Carmen Sandiego, even though she's not actually there, every possible ship combination of these four characters has vibes i am vibing, graham doesnt know what VILE is and at this point ACME is too afraid to tell him, i mean it's gen fic but i'm vibing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-16 16:55:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28710066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/summerwoodsmoke/pseuds/summerwoodsmoke
Summary: Graham hadn’t been a secret agent for very long, but even he knew it wasn’t normal to leave all your special gadgets in the car when you went for an “information exchange”. His partner had been acting weird all day, and Graham didn’t know what to expect.Or: Chase Devineaux takes one partner to meet another.
Relationships: Gray | Crackle (Carmen Sandiego) & Chase Devineaux, Julia "Jules" Argent & Chase Devineaux, Julia "Jules" Argent & Gray | Crackle
Comments: 19
Kudos: 69





	secret agent graham

**Author's Note:**

> thank you to my wonderful beta julianna for helping me out with this and getting 'secret agent man' stuck in my head for like two weeks!!
> 
> this fic was inspired by a handful of tumblr posts about chase, and julia, and acme!graham, and i have, unfortunately, misplaced them all. but the general idea was 'i love acme!graham and julia as partners, oh no she's left acme, so what if he had to be chase's partner instead' and mashed with 'now that chase has Come Into His Morals, how will he reconnect with julia' and my brain went, Combine That.  
> now im obsessed with chase and graham as a concept and they dont even have a relationship tag on here. 
> 
> so anyhow, big shoutout and thank you to the CS tumblr fandom for your posts, your ideas are inspiring and if you see this i hope you like it!

If Graham could travel back in time and tell his past self that one day, he would be a secret agent, he’d laugh in his own face. Unless his past self was seven. He was pretty psyched about spies when he was seven. But truly, there was no reality he could’ve possibly imagined where he actually had a real job as a real secret agent. What was this, _Spy Kids_?

Graham watched as Chase knocked on the door again, grumbling. No, not _Spy Kids_. Just ACME. Just Graham and his grumpy old man partner and their hologram pens and tinted glasses and _really_ beat-up company car. 

“Why are we here again? Exactly?” Graham asked. 

Chase groaned. “How many times must I say, Agent Calloway, we are here for an information exchange.” He knocked on the door again. 

Graham’s brow furrowed. “Right. An exchange of information that...couldn’t be done through the pens? Or, I dunno, _email_?”

Chase glared at him. “No,” he said flatly. 

Then, the door opened. They were on the fifth floor of a middling apartment building in Coventry, of all places. Chase and Graham had been in London on assignment, but when that had wrapped, Chase had insisted on driving them out here. For this. 

A small, Asian woman with glasses stood in the doorway. “Agent Devineaux,” she said quietly, seeming unsurprised. Her eyes flicked over Graham. “And—?”

“My new partner, Agent Calloway,” Chase answered. “I am glad to see you well, A—Ms. Argent.”

Ms. Argent smiled. “Likewise, Agent Devineaux. Pleased to meet you, Agent Calloway. Won’t you come in?”

——

Again, Graham had really had no intention of becoming a secret agent. If anything, he’d expected to fall on the other side of the law, what with his light shoplifting habit and the disgust he felt for the rich guests when he worked at the opera house. 

ACME had known about the shoplifting. That had been the cherry on top of a very alarming sundae, the day that Agent Devineaux and Agent Rouhani had approached him at his favourite coffee shop. The alarming sundae itself had mostly been made up of the fact that they also knew about: Carmen, what happened with Carmen in Kiwiland, and that Carmen was not all she seemed. They seemed to know quite a lot about Carmen. They seemed to know quite a lot about Graham. 

“We need to find out the truth about Carmen Sandiego,” Agent Rouhani—Zari—had said. Her tinted glasses made it difficult to see where exactly she was looking, but Graham felt stripped-to-the-bone seen regardless. “Our boss wants you to help us. What do you say?”

 _I want to talk to Carmen about this_ , had been his first thought. Of course, that was impossible. She’d dropped in and out of his life twice now, no warning either time, and she certainly hadn’t left a way to contact her. 

_Do I really want to talk to Carmen_? had been his second thought. These agents were making Carmen out to be an international mastermind criminal with a whole cabal of underlings serving her every whim. Graham wasn’t sure about that, although the agents did have evidence. Like, a lot of evidence. Graham was a little overwhelmed by the amount of evidence they’d handed him. 

But he remembered. He remembered Auckland, his own suspicion and annoyance and confusion and _relief_ , asking if they were the good guys, Carmen confirming that they were. And he believed her. She lied to him and eluded him so often, he felt like he had a good sense of when she was telling the truth. He believed her. 

He’d looked up from the tablet with years’ worth of case files and snapshots and video files of evidence, studied Zari—steady, patient, a neutral face refusing to give anything away—and Chase—fidgeting, grimacing, leg bouncing beneath the table and constantly glancing around—before giving his answer. 

“Alright,” he’d said. “I’ll help you.”

——

“How long have you been partners?” Ms. Argent asked, setting a teapot down on the table. 

“Almost a month, now,” Graham replied, ignoring Chase’s scoff. The man was all bluster with almost no bite. He was...well, he’d taken some getting used to, but Graham was, in fact, getting used to. 

Ms. Argent smiled as she poured three cups of tea. “And Agent Zari, how is she?”

Chase waved a careless hand. “Oh, she is wonderful, when is she not?” he said, his voice flat. He took the proffered teacup from Ms. Argent and sipped it before continuing, “She’s back with that first guy, the skinny one—”

“Agent Kosinski,” Graham said, then blinked when he realized Ms. Argent had said it in unison with him. Ms. Argent blinked back. Chase groaned, and Graham heard him mutter something suspiciously like _now there’s_ _two of you..._ under his breath. 

“So, he’s back from paternity leave?” Ms. Argent asked. “I suppose that’s how you and Agent Calloway ended up together then, hm?”

“I suppose,” Chase said. 

Graham shrugged. “I kinda barged in on him and Zari, and then when Agent Kosinski got back, she left and I stayed. I really _just_ started a month ago.”

“Oh!” Ms. Argent tilted her head, studying him, then froze. Slowly, she put her cup down before meeting Chase’s eye. Chase nodded, looking downright grim, even for him, and Graham suddenly had the heebie jeebies. He had no clue what was up with these two and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. _Especially_ if it had something to do with him, and how much ACME seemed to know and care about him. 

Graham cleared his throat, setting down his untouched tea, much less gently than Ms. Argent had. “Could you point me to your loo?” 

“Of course.” She pointed over her shoulder to the hallway behind her. “Second door on the right.”

Graham smiled tightly. “Ta.” He really hoped they would hash out whatever it was they _clearly_ needed to hash out before he got back from what would be an unrealistically long piss. This secret agent stuff was ridiculous even when they were off the clock. 

——

His first week as an ACME agent had been in the United States, trailing Agents Rouhani and Devineaux as they trailed Carmen through a series of museum heists focused around Renaissance era furniture, of all things. They were so unsuccessful at apprehending her, they never even saw her—much to Graham’s simultaneous delight and dismay—and yet, somehow, almost every artefact was found within its own museum, if not in its rightful spot. 

(The one exception was a fancy gold and red cushioned bench, and Graham had a field day imagining Carmen and her crew lugging it around like movers hauling around an old couch. The bench itself turned up a week later in an auction Interpol had been keeping tabs on. “All’s well that ends well, eh?” Graham had said. Zari and Chase had given unique but in sync grunts in reply.)

That first week had technically been his training week and probation period rolled into one and compressed as much as possible. He picked up things _insanely_ fast. He didn’t miss the looks they gave him, but he didn’t have any answers. He didn’t get it, either. Helping out Carmen Sandiego on one mission did not a secret agent make. Partway through his second week, when Agent Kosinski got back from paternity leave, and Chief let Zari return to her old partner, she officially made Graham and Chase partners as well. The idea that he was ready to be a full-fledged ACME agent after ten days seemed ridiculous to Graham, and he thought it also seemed ridiculous to Zari and Chase and heck, even Chief, but regardless, it went entirely unspoken.

“And you’re sure you’ve never done this before?” Chase had growled at him once.

“What, driven a car?” Graham laughed, glancing at him from the driver’s seat.

Chase _actually_ growled then. “No,” he said through gritted teeth, “Obviously, I meant driven a car _in a high speed chase!_ ” He was gripping the grab handle above the window like his life depended on it.

“Oh! Well, uh, no.” Graham changed gears and pressed down on the brakes to swing the car around a corner, in pursuit of someone Graham was almost entirely certain was not actually Carmen. Not that he was telling Chase that. “I’ve never actually owned a car before,” he said as they straightened out.

Chase exhaled loudly through his nose. “I cannot tell if this shocks me or not.”

Graham just laughed again.

——

After Graham closed the bathroom door, he realized that yeah, actually, he _did_ wanna know if his new coworker and this random lady were talking about him. Things were weird with ACME, and he still wasn’t sure what to believe about either Carmen or ACME itself, so he might as well try to get what information he could, right? _Information exchange_ , Chase had called this. Time to find out what kind of information, if he could.

He eased open the bathroom door as quietly as he could, grateful that the hallway light was off. If he stood in the shadows just a few feet down from the bathroom, he could just catch Chase and Ms. Argent’s voices while still being out of Chase’s line of vision.

“...kept Calloway in the dark about it,” Chase was saying. Graham’s stomach lurched. “Which was, admittedly, not a bad move, considering where he is now.” Chase sounded...begrudgingly approving?

“Agent Devineaux,” Ms. Argent said, and she sounded _delighted_ , “Do I hear a hint of respect in your voice?”

“Oh, what is this!” Chase’s reply was immediate and blustery and _loud_. “You stop being an agent and suddenly you find snark? Hmph!” Graham thought he could hear a quiet chuckle from Ms. Argent, then silence. A quiet _clink_ , and then Chase was speaking again. “So what if I do, perhaps, maybe, respect Carmen Sandiego. What good does that do, for her? For me?”

 _Respect Carmen?_ Graham braced his hand against the wall. Chase had mentioned keeping Graham in the dark, and Graham wasn’t quite sure if he’d meant Carmen or ACME, because both were true. But he’d also called it a good idea, _considering where he was now_ —an ACME agent? And Chase said he respected Carmen...but in a private conversation with a woman who had once been ACME but wasn’t any longer. Was Chase...on Carmen’s side? At least in thought, if not action?

“What happened?” Ms. Argent asked quietly, breaking a silence Graham hadn’t even noticed.

Chase grumbled-hummed. “Stolen masks. In Venice, not long after you left. She got away from the museum, I followed her on foot, and she led me right back to where we started, leaving the masks with me. And she...she mentioned you.”

“She did?” Ms. Argent sounded...hopeful.

“Mm. She said...you would understand.”

A beat passed, then, “Do _you_?”

“...I think I am beginning to,” Chase said, sounding more calm and contrite than Graham had ever heard him before.

“Good,” Ms. Argent said firmly. “Then I’m glad you came. Alright, tell me who else you saw in Venice—I know Chief wants to think Carmen and VILE are one and the same, but I can try and tell you which ones are actually working with her, and which are not. I will say, I think you’ll find her side to be much smaller than Chief assumes.”

——

In Auckland, when he’d thought he was there for a children’s charity, he spent the hours before the “performance” hanging out with Zack and Ivy, two very loud, very boisterous Americans that he assumed were siblings—based on their looks, but also just the way they were with each other. Carmen had popped in and out of the control room, but at the time, Graham had figured she was helping coordinate the last touches on the show, and actually had been impressed by how put together she seemed for an opening night. 

Now, he knew she’d been preparing to break into some secret facility and break some electrical device, but in hindsight, that just impressed him more. And now that he was with ACME, he knew just how often she did that sort of thing. As far as he could tell, she did it with no help except for Zack and Ivy, and _maybe_ a Kiwi named Peter. 

And the people working against Carmen, well, he knew even less about them, but he got the sense that the sort of people who owned a facility like the one in Auckland had no shortage of resources, of any sort. 

——

Graham waited another few minutes in the hallway, listening as Chase shared with Ms. Argent—whom Graham was certain was ex-ACME by now—the people he had seen in the time since Ms. Argent had left. Then he’d listened as Ms. Argent brought up people they had encountered in the time she and Chase had partners, and further referenced others she had seen when she was an agent _without_ Chase. Graham’s head hurt. How long had they been doing this? How many enemies were there? He knew the people Carmen were working against were powerful, but this was ridiculous. Ms. Argent had mentioned something called VILE...was it an organized group? And he himself had more people to add to the list—the slick fighter he had zapped to unconsciousness, and the woman with an accent whose voice he’d heard over the PA of the facility.

Graham heard Chase groan quietly, and, taking a chance, stepped forward to see his partner with his head in his hands. He muttered something under his breath that made Ms. Argent laugh, then say, “I can’t say that I do.”

Now seemed as good a time as any. He stepped forward into the living room. “So, when you said we were here for an information exchange, you could’ve just let me know it was about Carmen.” Ms. Argent had turned in her seat the second he’d started speaking, and Chase had lifted his head to grimace, then glare at him. Now, they were both staring at him, speechless. “In New Zealand,” he went on, “She and I ran into a very flexible and slippery man, as well as a woman I never saw but who seemed to be in charge.”

Another beat of silence, then they both spoke at the same time.

“So, you _were_ helping Carmen in New Zealand?” That was Ms. Argent, which, rude. If ACME had really been watching him since then, they must’ve seen him and Carmen get coffee after. Did he _look_ like someone working against her?

And Chase: “ _Why_ did you become an ACME agent if you support Ms. Sandiego?”

Graham threw his hands up. “Yes, I was helping Carmen! Why do you _think_ I agreed to join ACME!” He gestured his hands at the two of them, trying to encompass all of their ridiculousness. “What is this, if not ACME agents secretly supporting Carmen Sandiego!”

Chase stood up. “How long were you listening!”

“Long enough!”

“Don’t you know it is impolite to—”

“Alright, alright!” Ms. Argent shouted to be heard over them. She was standing between the two of them, looking up at Chase. “None of us are perfect, Agent Devineaux. Let’s please calm down, all of us.” She turned and looked at Graham, her face tight with stress, but not upset. “Agent Calloway, won’t you please sit?”

Graham exhaled slowly and nodded. Once they were all sitting again, Ms. Argent looked between Chase and Graham a few times before saying, “We might be...surprised, but we’re far from displeased. You’re right, about us wanting to help her, Agent Calloway—”

“Call me Graham,” he interrupted, even as relief flowed through him at her words. Her gaze on him felt heavy and reminded him of Zari, all-knowing. He felt his face go hot and rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. They all wanted to help Carmen. He just had to remember that.

She smiled. “Graham,” she said warmly. “Then you _must_ call me Julia.”

Graham found himself smiling back without thinking. He’d always found it easy to like people, always took a mile when given an inch. “Julia,” he replied steadily. He took a breath, then said, “So, are we gonna help Carmen, or what?”

Chase furrowed his brow. “How, exactly, do you propose we help Ms. Sandiego, hm? I do not know about _you_ , Agent Calloway, but I am sure that Chief would not be happy with me if I started doing the exact opposite of what she wanted on assignments.”

Graham raised an eyebrow. “It’s not like we’ve been all that great at stopping or apprehending Carmen these last few weeks anyway.”

“And,” Julia spoke up, “What happens on assignments when no one else is around doesn’t have to make it back to Chief.”

“Ms. Argent.” Chase sounded mildly scandalized, although he hadn’t moved an inch and looked exhausted. “Are you telling me you _lied_ to Chief?”

Julia’s cheeks flushed slightly, but her voice stayed sure. “Of course. Multiple times. At some point, I realized that Chief only knew what was happening on my missions with Carmen if I told her myself. So, sometimes...I simply did not tell her. In fact, in Monaco—” Julia’s eyes flicked between Chase and Graham. “Well. Even when there seemed to be extenuating circumstances, I trusted her, and it paid off.”

Graham gestured a hand at Julia, raising his eyebrows at his partner. “See?” he said, much more airily than he felt. “What Chief doesn’t know won’t hurt her.”

“I’d very much appreciate it, knowing you were out there helping Carmen now that I can’t anymore,” Julia added, her voice steady and stolid. 

Chase’s arms tightened where they were folded across his chest. “You _can’t_?”

Julia glanced at her old partner. “Can’t,” she repeated, just as firm and calm. “I know myself, Agent Devineaux. I’ve done what I can in that area, and until something changes, it’s all I can do. But with you two there, perhaps I can do something here…”

“Like what?” Graham asked, genuinely curious.

“Research?” Chase offered, his posture slightly more relaxed.

“Dull facts and boring things?” Julia shot back with a raised eyebrow. She sounded like she was quoting something.

Chase made a noise of disagreement. “Useful in some cases,” he said to the rug. “Especially against someone as worldly and intelligent as Ms. Sandiego.”

Julia hummed, a slight smile on her face. “Yes, research,” she said to Graham. “With my job at the university here, I have more online access than I would as an ordinary citizen, so that is something. I don’t want to count my eggs before they hatch, but I’d like to think I can notice patterns in art and history circles, or certain events like auctions that seem likely for Carmen to be involved in. On the off-chance I catch something ACME doesn’t, that would be a good opportunity for you to meet with Carmen, talk with her.”

“Perhaps just Calloway,” Chase said, to Graham’s surprise. “I do not think she would be inclined to stop and chat if I approached her while she was...working.”

Graham blinked. He had a point, but... “Regardless, mate, if we get a chance to talk to Carmen when we’ve not been sent directly by Chief, I’d say we take it. Emphasis on _we_. I heard you mention Venice—

“When you were eavesdropping?” Chase grumbled.

“So I don’t think Carmen’d be as likely to run you off as you think,” Graham finished, ignoring his partner’s interruption. He raised his eyebrows at Chase, and could tell from his peripheral vision that Julia was also looking at the older man. 

Chase looked between the two of them, then sat up and groaned. “Very well!” he said, leaning his arms against his knees. It made Graham nearly laugh, to see his partner sit up straight and immediately hunch over; the same thing he always did, no matter where they were or what they were doing. “If you insist,” Chase went on, “ _We_ will do this. Help Ms. Sandiego with whatever she is trying to accomplish when we encounter her on ACME’s terms,” he looked from Graham to Julia, “Try to find her somewhere ACME will not know about, and explicitly offer her our assistance then, yes?”

“Perfect,” Julia replied, looking very pleased indeed.

“Sounds great!” Graham agreed. “And, uh, fighting the bad guys, right?” Chase and Julia both froze just the tiniest amount. Graham had to swallow a guffaw. 

“Sorry?” Julia asked politely.

“You know, the people you two were listing off for each other? When I was eavesdropping,” he added, just to be annoying. He could feel his lips twitching with the desire to smirk as he sat back in his chair. “And that slippery guy I told you about from New Zealand? You called them—VILE? The bad guys, I’m assuming?”

Julia and Chase, far from relaxed or calm now, stared at him in silence before turning to look at each other. Graham watched them closely, also not feeling that relaxed anymore, but keeping up his laid back pose, crossing his arms over his chest. _VILE_. It had been itching at his brain ever since he heard Julia say it. It didn’t mean anything to him, or at least nothing that he could make sense of; if anything, it made him think of the villains from _Spongebob_ , and like, import-export companies. But it had to do with Carmen, and it wouldn’t leave his brain alone. So he knew it mattered.

“...right,” Chase said, looking away from Julia to meet his eye. He watched him for a moment, like he was asking a question Graham couldn’t hear. Graham kept his gaze steady and hoped he was giving the right answer.

“If we’re gonna do this, I think we all need to trust each other,” Graham added. “And I think this is something I need to know.” 

“He’s not wrong,” Julia said. Graham and Chase blinked, and Graham flicked his eyes over to see her resting her chin on her hand. “Honestly, with Chief’s dedication to VILE, I’m shocked she’s kept him in the dark about it, despite…”

“Yes.” Chase sounded bitter, almost. “Despite.” He sighed. “Should we start with the reason ACME exists, or the ‘coma’?”

Graham blinked. “Hold on.”

“I think you shouldn’t have mentioned the coma at all yet, actually.” Julia was glaring at Chase.

“By _the_ coma, you are referring to _my_ coma, yeah?” Graham sat up, eyes wide. He wasn’t _that_ shocked that ACME (or ex-ACME) agents knew about his coma—they’d known everything else about his life before recruiting him, why not this? But what did it have to do with VILE?

“I wasn’t sure if we should start with the big picture or the personal connection!” Chase’s shoulders were raised, his hands waving in defence of himself against the tiny woman giving him the evil eye. Graham couldn’t even appreciate it ‘cause he felt something suspiciously like panic rising in the back of his throat.

“Excuse me! Still right here, still waiting to be told what VILE is, and still, apparently, wondering what the heck you two know about my coma?!”

“Looking at the big picture is ideal for processing _brand new_ information, Agent Devineaux,” Julia said sternly. She turned to Graham. “So we will get to the coma, I promise. But first, about VILE, and Chief, and the reason we even started chasing Carmen in the first place.” She didn’t phrase it as a question, but she stopped there, watching and waiting for him to give her a sign. Once again, Graham was being asked a question he couldn’t hear, although this time he felt he could tell what it was. _Trust me?_ Which, really, was the whole reason they were all talking together like this in the first place. _Trust_. Graham took a purposeful breath in before letting it out slowly.

“Alright,” he said. “Yes. Tell me about VILE.”

**Author's Note:**

> me: *climbs hill labelled “julia and chase have the utmost respect for each other which is why they always refer to each other formally; chase applies this to everyone in his life, hence the change from ‘la femme rouge’ to ‘ms. sandiego’, while julia is more flexible and willing to meet people halfway, hence ‘jules/carmen’ and ‘graham’; also graham is informal with literally everyone after max two hours of knowing them” and makes plans to die there* 
> 
> this fic is a study in POV, in that graham has almost no clue whats going on, and im praying it makes sense to you readers anyway. the entirety of acme was flabbergasted when they realized graham doesnt remember poitiers (chief: have you ever been to france? graham: no ive never been north of the equator. chief: ….), and then chief went all in on recruiting him while zari is just Longsuffering. kosinsky definitely comes back on the job like…what is happening here 
> 
> chase wanted to meet up with julia (at her new job in coventry!) after venice just to be like, hey, im in a crisis, what do i do now, but then he and zari were given graham and he had ANOTHER crisis, so this was really a two birds, one stone visit. graham misses most of the talk about himself while hiding in the bathroom, but it largely involved chase and julia going ?!?!?!? at each other until julia notices he doesnt hate carmen anymore and zooms in on that
> 
> also, i gave everybody last names. It Had To Be Done
> 
> thanks for reading! kudos and comments are much loved. if you like, this fic is rebloggable [here](https://summerwoodsmoke.tumblr.com/post/640361534331174912), and you can find me on twitter [here](https://twitter.com/alinastarkovas)


End file.
